Newly elected Bass Labor MHR Ross Hart has said that health issues played a massive part in carrying him to victory over incumbent Liberal Andrew Nikolic.
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Mr Hart also credited the ground campaign that Labor ran in the electorate as seeing him win the seat.
"The amount of money that was no doubt spent by the Liberals in order to keep pace with us can't match people talking to people and connecting with their stories," he said.
"We always thought we'd have a good show because we knew if we ran a ground campaign, we had a good prospect of winning.
"Ground campaigns won the Victorian election and they won the Queensland election.
"It involves having a candidate of the community listening to the community and listening to what the community is saying.
"The electors in Bass have not been heard by the current government."
Mr Hart was brimming with pride and confidence when he entered his election function at Invermay tonight, carrying with him a victory speech tucked under his arm.
"Bass has spoken and spoken resoundingly and that may well be a reflection that there are significant concerns here that exist elsewhere," Mr Hart said.
"I can say that I'm somewhat overwhelmed and it has taken me sometime to realise.
"In my wildest dreams, I wanted to win well but there is a danger in being overconfident."
When asked about the contribution of the unions and activist group GetUp! towards the election result in Bass, Mr Hart said:
"The unions certainly helped with volunteers at the end of the campaign but GetUp! ran their own campaign that just so happened to coincide with the issues that we were campaigning on."
